Stem Cells in Skincare

What are stem cells?

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells which have the potential to differentiate into specialized cell types (such as specific types of skin, muscle, blood cells, etc.). They are capable of multiplying indefinitely, as long as the person is alive. Yet, stem cells in the human body undergo aging, and as we grow old, our body gradually loses its capacity to renew tissues.

Stem cell – based skincare products

For the beauty-conscious, aging means that the renewal of skin cells slows down (due to the aging of our skin’s stem cells). Wrinkles start to appear and wounds or scars take longer to heal. The cosmetic industry has now come up with a new solution: To use stem cell-based products to stimulate our own skin’s stem cells to regenerate and live longer.

Not all stem cell-based products are the same. In fact, their ingredients vary greatly. Here are the different types of active ingredients in products which are marketed as “stem cell-based”:

1.       Plant-derived stem cell extracts

Plant stem cells are mainly found in the tips of the shoot & roots, and in the stems of a plant. Just in case you would like to know. If I didn’t interpret wrongly from this Yahoo article, L’Oreal’s Age Perfect Cell Renew range contains plant stem cell extracts.

2.       Human-derived stem cell extracts

Don’t worry, they don’t use embryonic stem cells. Some products use adult human stem cells. One famous brand, Lifeline, which has been mentioned in several beauty articles on the Internet, uses stem cells developed from unfertilized human eggs. Now, would you like to apply some cream made of unfertilized eggs donated by an anonymous lady from somewhere out there?

3.       Proteins secreted by stem cells

Meaning, the stem cells themselves are not used in the product. Stem cells are grown in a liquid medium, and that liquid medium bathing the cells is collected. To be honest, I don’t know of any particular brand of product that uses this, but I do know that the method has been patented.

What is the science behind stem cells in skin care?

I tried to search for scientific literature studying the use of stem cells in cosmetic products and came up with ZERO results. I repeat: ZERO results, whether it's for plant/animal/human-derived stem cell products. Sure, some companies do mention on their websites that their product has shown great results in a study, but then these results are not made available to the public or even to the scientific community. Sounds rather suspicious, don’t you think?

Let’s think about the plausibility of their claims. Take a look at a statement from Lifeline (taken from the Lifeline website):

“Scientists at Lifeline Skin Care discovered that human non-embryonic stem cell extracts can renew skin -- by replacing old cells with healthy new ones.”

If scientists had truly found a way to reverse aging (i.e. to turn the old cells into healthy new ones), this would be the greatest medical breakthrough of all time. This technology would be applied in every field of medicine possible – to get younger & healthier brains, bones, muscles, etc. We would have discovered the Tree of Life, the fountain of youth. We would live forever, and never grow old. Erm… Does that sound a little less convincing now?

In the end, I believe that “stem cell-based skincare products” sound very science-y, very high-tech, but that’s all just part of marketing strategy. Somehow, stem cells have evolved over the years from being an ethically controversial issue to becoming a mysterious, sort-of trendy promise for the future of medicine (and now, cosmetics). But before we spend a fortune on scientific-sounding products, let’s do our research properly to differentiate a hoax from the real deal.